The Reploid Legend
by LordGodsServant
Summary: This is and AU taking place in the MMZ games.  X rules Neo Arcadia with and iron fist, limiting all types of freedom you can think of.  However, the 4 Guardian's have formed a resistance but then they discover the legend, Zero.  Part adv. part romance.
1. Chapter 1

_First of, this is and alternate universe. The reasons for changes will be explained later._

_I am aware that the internal chronology of the series spans far before the Mega Man Zero series. Be aware that liberties taken with the historical events are taken on the grounds that I am not a hardcore player of every Mega Man game. The only series that I could really confidently say that I know the chronology of is Mega Man Zero, my favorite and that is the series that this story will take place in. _

_I will give backstory to this, but just be aware that as this is an alternate universe and I am probably not familiar with the great majority of Mega Man games, I will probably have to move things around. Nothing mind-blowingly major or extremely stupid will happen if I can avoid it. The only other Mega Man game I've really played and gotten to know is "Mega Man Xtreme 2" and no other._

_Please pardon any mistakes I make, I'm not particularly knowledgeable on all the facets of the Mega Man universe._

_If you have any questions on my chronology please PM me._

* * *

Fairy Leviathan was having a rough day. Sure the first part of the mission had seemed relatively easy, find some ancient artifact in an area that's been off-limits since before she was made, but it invariably got more and more complex.

* * *

To give an explanation where one is lacking Fairy Leviathan is a reploid, a robot that has all the intelligence and free will of a human. Reploids were made long ago by the first robot with such capabilities X, and Dr. Cain. However, soon X began to lead the Reploids in a revolution to conquer humanity. A fight that raged across centuries and decades that was finally ended with the founding of Neo Arcadia. The Earth had been devastated after centuries of warfare and Neo Arcadia was a city founded on one of the only places left that was livable. X controlled it, and those heroes who had so long apposed him vanished.

For a century X has ruled. He took the name "X Original" to differentiate himself from any and all copies that might be made of him. He rules through intimidation and fear. Imprisoning and killing all that appose him. But legends persisted, whispered from parents to children of the great and mighty Zero, who rose above a twisted creator and suicidal odds to defeat X time and again. Until he vanished 100 years ago along with his comrades at the start of X's reign. Most consider them dead, other's just a legend.

But several years ago, several members of X's own forces defected and formed the Resistance. Using a combination of both reploid and human members they set up a base where they would fight against X's tyranny.

The four reploids leading the resistance were entitled "The Guardians." They were created from facets of X's design himself. Their names were Harpuia, Phantom, Fefnir, and Fairy Leviathan.

Harpuia served as the predominant leader of the group, Fefnir as the pure combat leader, Phantom as the stealth and infiltration, and Fairy Leviathan as the scientist, though she was more of a hybrid of knowledge and fighting skills.

That being said, Fairy was the one who did most of the research and scientific work. And in her research she'd found a place that was recorded to hold an extremely valued artifact, its age was projected to be around the age of X Original himself. It was also rumored to have ancient defenses.

Leviathan had proposed to the other three resistance leaders that they investigate the ruins but they had declined on the grounds that none of the three of them could be spared to investigate. They always seemed to forget that she also had combat experience.

So, not willing to pass up the opportunity, she mobilized some of her own division of advanced robots, and headed to the ruins. Little did she know what would await her there.

* * *

The ruins were . . . well . . . ruins. As Fairy looked at them she wondered how such a building could last so long. Almost everything else that was a possible symbol against X had been destroyed. This building, decadent and falling apart though it was, was the original headquarters of the X-Hunters, as the original heroes who fought against X had called themselves.

She motioned for her forces to follow her and they did so. She hadn't brought along any reploids or humans, this was just her doing this mission. The forces she had brought were modified versions of the Pantheon robots that formed the mainstay of Neo Arcadia's, and by extension X's military. The robotic soldiers accompanying Leviathan had guns built into their arms that could fire energy beams. Their weapon energy output was far greater than that of the normal Pantheon Hunter, (which lead the Guardians to produce them sparingly), and they were painted with the Resistance's insignia on them, but other than that they were no different than the normal Pantheon.

Leviathan walked in through front entrance and moved off through the corridors. She had an ancient map that was supposedly a schematic for the complex and she followed it in towards the core. She wished she'd have had time to explore further, but as she was in a hurry she had to skip over various rooms that looked interesting.

Then, the first sign of trouble occurred. She turned a corner in a hall and suddenly ran into some blinding light. After her eyes had adjusted, she found that the entire corridor from here on was in perfect working order and the lights were working. She considered turning back but decided that if she'd come this far she might as well continue.

She was on her guard now; her Halberd was drawn as she walked down the hall, looking carefully at each door even if it was shut. She went on for a few more corridors in such a way but met no resistance. In fact she met nothing at all.

She walked around another corner and saw that at the end of this corridor and saw that at the end of the corridor was a gigantic door. She could see that this led to the area that the artifact was supposed to be at.

Then the alarm sounded.

She turned around and saw that all along the hallway behind her, various doors had opened up and out of them streamed Neo Arcadian forces. She was faced with a choice, try to fight her way out, or try to get the artifact now that she was so close.

She bit her lip.

Then she heard a voice say "_go free him."_

Fairy gasped as what looked like a small ball of light seemed to float in through the wall and revolve around her.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"_An old friend of his_" the ball of light answered "_thank you for leading me to him. He has been asleep too long. He must be awakened to save the world."_

"Who's this "he" you're talking about?" Fairy asked but the ball of light had already zoomed off down the hallway and after a moments hesitation, Fairy followed it.

By the time Fairy reached the doors they had slid opened and they banged shut behind her as she ran into the room. As Fairy looked around she was struck by the realization that while the hallways outside had all been upgraded and renovated, this part in the center of the base where the artifact was had been completely left alone. It was overgrown but she could see parts where the grass had been trodden down by someone pacing. But in the center of the room was the thing that drew her attention the most.

It was a capsule that had obviously broken open after so long without repairs. Fairy could see a dark shape huddled over in the darkness. Fairy approached the capsule and suddenly the glowing ball of light darted forward and lit it up.

Fairy's eyes widened as she gasped in amazement.

Inside the capsule sat a reploid that was obviously in need of some repairs but he was a reploid she had seen many times over in all of her historical research.

The reploid that sat before her was the legendary hero Zero himself.

Fairy reached out her hand but pulled it back as she encountered a forcefield. She was amazed that it was still active after all this time.

She turned to the ball of light as she heard pounding on the doors that led into the room, she was trapped.

"How do we get him out of here?"

"_The best way to do that would be to wake him up."_

"Well how do we do that?"

"_You can't, but I can."_

With that the ball of light flew straight at Zero and blasted the shield aside as if it was made of glass. It flew into Zero's chest and all damage on the body of the legendary reploid repaired itself. Then he groaned and reached his hands up to feel his head.

Fairy dropped to her knees and put her hands on Zero's shoulder's. He stopped moving and slowly looked up to see her ocean-blue eyes staring back into his brown ones.

"Zero, please help me get out of here!"

Zero grimaced, as if he was trying hard to remember something "Zero . . . that name . . . it's mine . . . I don't remember anything else."

"Help me out of here and I'll tell you everything else I can."

After a few moments, in which Zero seemed to be thinking hard, the door suddenly blew open behind them and Fairy saw hordes of Neo Arcadian forces streaming in through the opening.

She readied her Halberd, and then three shots of energy whizzed past her. They hit the ranks of robots and carved a path of destruction. Fairy turned and saw that Zero had an energy pistol out and he was smiling.

"I'd forgotten how fun it was to do that" then his face darkened as he muttered "then again, I can't remember anything else really."

Both reploids leapt at the enemy and sowed complete and utter chaos within their ranks, Fairy with her Halberd and Zero with both his pistol and his fists.

After they had cleared the room of enemies they quickly moved out and into the corridor. Fairy had a portable teleporter that would take them back to the Resistance base but it could only be used outside in the open air. Fairy lead the way as she was the one with the map.

They met a few robots but nothing that was a challenge which was rather unnerving to Fairy. Then as they turned the last corridor and Fairy could see daylight at the end of the corridor they heard a low chuckle. Fairy stiffened because she had heard that chuckle before.

Out of one of the rooms walked X Original himself. He looked at the two of them and once more he chuckled.

"So Fairy, you found him. I congratulate you, I didn't think anyone would be able to piece all of the historical clues together to lead to this place."

He then looked at Zero and his grin grew even wider as if he was looking at something that made him nostalgic "and Zero, I hope you had a good century of sleep. Feeling a bit forgetful though I see. I hope you like the new world I created in your absence."

Zero had no idea why, but the sight of this stranger made such anger blaze up inside him as he had never known before, though considering he couldn't remember anything at all that might not be saying much.

Anyway, none of the other two expected the blast of energy that proceeded from the end of Zero's pistol. Fairy however was not one to squander gifts and after X had been blasted out of the way she grabbed Zero's arm and tugged him down the corridor.

They were outside when they heard the shout and saw X zooming down the corridor after them, his face a mask of rage.

Fairy didn't give him the pleasure of blasting them to smithereens however and activated the portable teleporter.

The last thing they saw was the face of X as he tried to grab desperately them before they vanished.

Then they were gone.

* * *

_I hope you like it. I kinda feel like this isn't my best work. But please review and tell me what you thought._


	2. Chapter 2

_First things first, I DON'T intend for the romance to develop quickly, as much as that will be a main focus of the story, the other main focus (and likely the dominant one) will be the storyline itself. Don't worry however, as I said, the romance will likely only be second to that._

_Secondly, I have a bone to pick with one of my reviewers. "A reviewer" did you even read the story? Yes I am a Christian! No, I don't intend to ruin this fanfic by making it into something like a preachy Christian Commercial. I don't feel you actually took the time to read the fic, I personally did not see any religious references in it._

_Just had to let that out. Oh, and to my other Reviewer who said they didn't like it "Someguy" I understand and respect your reasoning. Thanks for your good wishes._

_Thirdly, sorry if this is a bit short. I hope the next part comes soon._

* * *

Using a portable Trans Server is a hard feeling to describe so I shan't go into it. What's important is that two Reploids, about the same height, transferred right next to a large base that was known to many as the headquarters of the resistance. To Levi it was her home, but to Zero it was something completely foreign. Fairy took a few moments to catch her breath, then she looked more closely at the base, it seemed her little trip hadn't gone unnoticed. The base was obviously on high alert, entrances were shut and nobody could be seen outside the perimeter.

"Well?" Fairy heard Zero say. She turned to see that he had his arms crossed and was looking imperiously at her. Then she remembered her promise to tell him all that she knew so she sat down on the ground.

Zero looked questioningly at her "if I'm going to explain your past to you we might as well get comfortable" she explained. Zero shrugged, then sat down and returned to staring at her. She swallowed, even without memory he was intimidating.

"Well . . . you're Zero."

Zero rolled his eyes "really, thanks for that illuminating piece of information."

Levi smirked and went on "well for starters I better tell you how the legend starts. You see it starts off a long time in the past. The humans were experiencing a technology revolution, new things became available and more and more things were being discovered/invented. Now, the greatest discovery of this age was a creation of Dr. Light who'd died a long time ago. I mean, a _longer_ time ago. For whatever reason he'd hidden him nobody knows but an enterprising professor called Dr. Cain discovered a robot that had been sealed away. The robot's name was X."

Zero made a face, as if that name was very important to him, but he just couldn't put his finger on why.

"Dr. Cain used the idea behind the design of X to give birth to an entire new generation of robots based off of him. They were called, Reploids. After they became accepted, which took a few years, it looked as if the sky was the limit with all the new possibilities that Reploids introduced."

"I'm sensing a "but" coming up soon."

Levi smirked "yep. Now, after a few years of peace and prosperity, weird things started happening. Random Reploids began behaving erratically, spouting random sayings, and in the worst cases, becoming violent. At first people passed this off as a just a small anomaly that would be over soon, but it got worse. When it first surfaced it was mostly just an annoyance and those that were violent were barely so, and only for a few minutes at most. But then violence began to become more and more prevalent, lasting longer and becoming more dangerous."

Levi paused as she watched Zero's brow furrow as if he was trying hard to remember something "I . . . I was . . . I think I was there?"

Levi nodded "though many people didn't know it at the time, another robot that had been locked away had been found about a year after X. His name was Zero and he bore the trademark of another scientist, one called Wily."

Zero felt a small stab of anxiety that he couldn't explain pierce his "stomach."

"Now, back to the matter of the violence. Well, people couldn't turn a blind eye towards the violence that was occurring so the Maverick Hunters were born."

"Maverick?"

"That's the term that was adopted to describe Reploids that became violent and went rogue. At first it seemed like the situation was falling back under control, Mavericks were all detained by the Hunters and the ones that escaped were recaptured quickly."

Zero eyed her, the unspoken question of "what went wrong?" hanging in the air.

"Well you see, one of the leaders, in fact probably the dominant leader of the Hunters was X. Now, after about half a year of the Hunter's existence a terrible thing happened. The Hunters suddenly began getting violent themselves, in fact they went Maverick. Everyone couldn't understand what had happened when suddenly X himself, the guy everyone had trusted, demanded the surrender of the world at large to him. You see, he'd been spreading a virus we call the Z-Virus, nobody knows if he got it from somewhere, or whether he made it up himself. Anyway, the Z-Virus, for all intents and purposes, corrupted Reploids, in the end it was hard to find a Reploid that hadn't been infected considering that the Maverick Hunters had been unwitting carriers of it."

"Now, the humans weren't going to take conquest sitting down. They fought, they had superior numbers but the Reploids were far superior in terms of fighting capability. It became dangerous to wander outside the main cities because Mavericks wandered all around."

Zero sat, staring at her with brooding eyes. His expression had only changed in slight bits throughout the entire story and it had quickly returned to a deadpan stare after that. Levi found it a bit unsettling but she plowed on.

"Now, X and his forces were winning the war but then, out of the blue a new, uninfected Robot appeared."

She looked pointedly at Zero.

"Me?" he guessed.

"You" she confirmed "to cut a long story short, you, along with some friends, defeated X. This started a long history of you acting as protector of humanity and Reploids. You formed the X-Hunters that were formed to combat X who continually resurged throughout history. You're a legend."

Zero nodded, he looked pensive "so why was I deactivated, why can't I remember anything, and what did X mean when he said "I hope you like the world I've created in your absence?"

Levi avoided his eyes, then she appeared to brace herself, just as people did when they were about to give bad news.

"Well . . . you see . . . you vanished about 100 years ago. In the wake of that, X resurged one more time and finally won. He managed to take over the world, or what was left of it."

Zero looked confused.

"Well, you see all those wars and fights over decades and centuries, it all eventually took its toll on the planet. Currently there are only spheres and sections of the planet that are still livable. Neo Arcadia is the biggest of these and X rules from there."

Zero now looked like he was studying her.

"So where do you factor into all this?"

Levi, for once, looked proud of herself "I'm one of four highly advanced Reploids that were built based on facets of X Original's (that's what we call him now) design. Our job was mainly as a peacekeeping force but . . . well it's a long story so to cut it short, we eventually came to our senses and realized what we were participating in, so we formed this resistance."

"Yes, and it would do well for you not to blab anymore secret General Fairy Leviathan, you are already in enough trouble as it is."

Levi looked behind her in surprise but Zero was already on his feet with his energy pistol pointing at the newcomer, a tall Reploid with a predominantly green color scheme who was holding two short energy sabers.

* * *

_Neo Arcadia – Throne Room_

X was not in a good mood. He couldn't believe he'd been so careless. He'd had Zero, his old adversary, the one person who he considered a threat, he'd let him escape all due to some third-rate female knock-off of himself.

He ordered no one to disturb him and began a breathing exercise, it usually helped him calm down to focus on the human function of breathing, it wasn't one of his vital functions but he still found it rather calming.

After he'd sufficiently calmed down he began to analyze the situation. Looking at it now, he realized that there were several ways that this could turn out to be a boon for him. As he thought about it, he actually began feeling a bit of smug excitement, now the roles were reversed, he had the resources of human civilization to draw upon as well as various powerful scientists.

He hit a button on the side of his throne and sent out a laundry list of orders "tell my top scientist to step up her research and Reploid designs, institute a 33% increase in all security and tell my main Guardians that I'd like to see them immediately."

He released the button and allowed a smile to creep across his face. For the first time in a hundred years he actually had something to look forward to. Zero was the only Reploid in the whole wide world that he actually considered to be a match for him in skills. But now he remembered little to nothing, this would be very interesting to watch play out, but he was confident he'd win in the end.

His utopia would continue, no matter what the cost.

* * *

_I really hope you like this, please review. _

_So, I didn't get around to the other guardians, that'll come next chapter, sorry._

_If you have any problems, please contact me. Like I said in the previous chapter I'm not a hardcore player but I am aware of a good deal of the history through reading about it. How did you like my rendition of it? I may take a closer look at it via Zero's flashbacks. Those will be present at times to help preserve continuity. _


	3. Chapter 3

The two tall Reploids sized each other up, weapons at the ready. Zero looked at the green Reploid with some interest; he could see design similarities to X in this Reploid. The Green Reploid however, looked at him with disdain and mistrust.

Fairy Leviathan stood up between them, trying to defuse the tension.

"Harpuia, I'd like to introduce you to Zero, as in, the **legendary** **hero** Zero, the one who **saved the Earth** multiple time, and whom it would be very good to have **on our side** so would you both please **put down your weapons**!"

After a few seconds consideration, Zero lowered his pistol but Harpuia kept his sabers at the ready.

"Harpy, please put your sabers away!"

Harpuia shot her an annoyed look "he could be a Neo Arcadian spy, and don't call me that!"

A smirk appeared on Zero's face. Harpuia noticed this and barked "wipe that grin off your face! Who are you and where are you from?"

Fairy slapped her forehead "I already told you who he is. He's Zero, the hero we always heard about in legends!"

Harpuia had a skeptical look on his face.

"Levi, you've got a lot of explaining to do."

An uneasy silence followed.

"Well, start explaining!"

"Okay, well you remember those ruins that none of you would go to?"

"Don't tell me you went there?"

"Yep, now don't look at me like that Harpy, you always underestimate my fighting skills!"

"Oh, I suppose this mission was a cakewalk then, I notice that we're missing a good few robots, they got blown up didn't they!"

"Yeah, I'm sorry about them. Anyway, I reached the ruins and went inside."

Harpuia listened to Levi's story with a stern/pensive look on his face. After it was done, he looked at Zero with a suspicious look. He used a walkie-talkie to call someone inside the base to come out.

Zero watched as two other reploids exited the base and walked out to meet them. One was a lithe reploid in predominantly purple armor and, though he wasn't like those large bulky fitness people you see, Zero could tell his limbs had a wiry strength to them. The other reploid was the exact opposite, big and bulky with a red coloration, he had two large (completely oversized) guns strapped on his back.

Once they were standing beside them, the red one looked at Zero and said in a snarky voice "who's this undersized knock-off of me?"

Zero bristled, if anyone was the knock-off, it was this guy!

Harpuia turned to the two reploids "Phantom, Fefnir, I need you two to detain this reploid until we've learned more about him."

"WHAT?" cried both Fairy Leviathan and Zero.

The two reploids moved forward and Zero's pistol was out again, switching between the two of them, as if he couldn't decide who to aim at.

Levi appealed to Harpuia "Harpy, what are you doing?"

"Making sure that, whatever this thing is isn't some sort of infiltration attempt by X Original."

"But I told you the story, he was being held in a stasis pod, X tried to kill us both, how can you say that he's a fake?"

Zero called "listen to her, she's a smart one!"

The two reploids advanced on Zero. Phantom said in a calm voice "you'd best lay down you're weapon. If you're who you say you are, then you have nothing to fear. Put yourself at our mercy and we will release you once we are certain of the truth."

"Like heck I will!" exclaimed Zero.

"Very well then" said Phantom as he darted forward. He had intended to slice several places where there were wires liable to disable Zero's limbs, but something happened to him that had only happened once before, _he missed._

Zero, acting on pure instinct, jerked his body and the energy knives that had just appeared in Phantom's hands sailed past him, barely missing cutting open his syntheflesh. Still acting on instinct he swung his gun hand and it collided with the back of Phantom's head. As Phantom fell Zero brought his knee up and it slammed into Phantom's gut.

All this happened within the space of a second and then Phantom fell back, gasping for air.

In the silence that followed, you could almost hear a needle drop. Then Fefnir roared and brought his guns up and fired. Zero leapt out of the way and Fefnir blinked.

Harpuia, recovering from his shock that Phantom had actually missed, charged Zero and began swinging at him with both his short energy sabers.

Relying completely on his instincts, Zero ducked and weaved, the swords never so much as scratched him.

Even when Phantom rejoined the fight and Fefnir began trying to shoot Zero again, nobody could lay a hand on him.

Levi found a comfortable patch of ground and sat down, eager to watch the show.

Harpuia swung his right saber but suddenly found his arm seized in Zero's iron grip. Zero's fist shot out and slammed into Harpuia's face. At the same moment he ripped the saber out of Harpuia's hand and sprung back. Zero gave the saber a few test spins and grinned "now this is more my style" he thought.

He quickly defended as Phantom flew at him again. After a few attempted dissections by Phantom, Zero beaned him in the face with his saber hilt and then grabbed by the arms.

Swinging Phantom around a few times, he let go and Phantom felt himself collide with Fefnir.

All three guardians were down and they're moods weren't improved by the sound of Levi clapping.

Zero himself looked astonished at what he'd accomplished. He wondered, he'd been acting on simple instinct, how dangerous had he been at his best. It was both an interesting and a bit of a scary prospect.

Harpuia, groaning and sore, got to his feet. He looked up and saw that "Zero" was just lounging about as Levi walked up to him.

"Wow, I knew you were good, but . . . not that good. Why didn't you try to go after X with that kind of skill?"

Zero looked thoughtful "well . . . I was just acting on instinct."

Fefnir's jaw fell open and Harpuia snorted in an annoyed manner. Phantom's face betrayed no emotion.

Levi looked at Harpuia and put on the cutest face she had "please let him stay in the base Harpy? Please?"

Harpy, after a good minute's worth of thought, sighed and said "fine, but he stays in the extra room. And when I say that he "stays" there, I mean that he stays there always unless we say so. He's not allowed to go poking about our base."

Levi began to object but Zero put a hand on her shoulder "it's fine, I'll live with it."

Levi still gave a scorching glance towards the other guardians.

* * *

The room wasn't very impressive. Just a bed and a small personal computer that Zero suspected had been disconnected from the Base's network.

He'd been in the room for several hours while Levi had been interrogated by her three friends. During that time he'd been trying to bring some memories back. He cast about, trying to remember anything that gave him clues of his former life.

Suddenly an image came up, so suddenly he almost fell back. A girl, reploid, with brown hair and blue eyes. Standing behind her was a large reploid, much bigger than her. Though the male reploid behind the girl was obviously a fighter and looked to be a very good one too, his face had an exceedingly gentle look on it and both gazed at Zero with kindness and happiness in their eyes.

"_Aren't you excited Zero, X is gone!"_

Zero heard his own voice in the memory say "_X always has a back-up plan, he'll be back."_

"_Aye, but hopefully not for a long time. Relax Zero, let us just enjoy the time we have together now."_

Zero felt himself smile, both in the present and in the memory.

"_You both are probably right, c'mon let's get something to eat. Maybe we could catch that new vid together Iris. And Colonel, we should have a sparring match later. It'd be nice to have one where my opponent's not trying to rip me limb from limb."_

_Colonel laughed "you know me Zero, can't make any guarantees." _

"_Maybe we could convince Sig to spar with us too, he needs a break."_

Zero blinked. The memory didn't slide away and vanish, it stuck but that was it. He couldn't remember anything before or after that memory. It was like looking at one segment of a movie without any access to the other parts. It was frustrating to say the least.

The door to his room opened and his head flew up to see who it was.

Fefnir stood in the door entrance. He had a look of obvious distaste on his face.

"You're to come to the trans-server room, stay in front of me at all times and keep your eyes from wandering."

"Why, what do you need me for?"

Fefnir looked like he wasn't going to answer, then he said with obvious disgust "we might need your h- . . . h- . . . h-elp."

Zero, internally smirking, got up and walked out the door.

* * *

_Hope you guys liked this. If you have any questions or see something I've done wrong, please don't hesitate to PM me._


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